BLADENBORO – The West Bladen Lady Knights make an improbable comeback against the Fairmont Golden Tornadoes to claim a 9-8 victory in the bottom of the seventh to earn their eighth win of the season last Thursday. The Golden Tornadoes were clicking in the batter’s box through the first five innings and they accumulated an 8-0 lead. West Bladen refused to buckle under pressure in the face of adversity and they were able to cut their opponents lead in half during their at-bat in the bottom of the fifth inning. Fairmont failed to add to their lead in the next at-bat and momentum began to shift into the host’s favor.
West Bladen senior Marlee Walters dashed across home plate from third base after a wild pitch in the dirt and the Lady Knights pulled within two runs of their opponents at 8-6. Sophomore Karlee Gause showed patience in the batter’s box and was awarded with a walk to place runners on the corners with no outs. Next up to the plate was Kali Allen for her fourth appearance of the evening and she smacked a ball to the second basemen, which got her thrown out but was enough to bring the seventh run across the plate to put the host within one.
Fairmont had their backs against the wall as the game-tying run was at second and they needed two more outs to conclude the sixth inning. West Bladen freshmen Addison Wilcox slapped an infield grounder and was immediately thrown out at first for the second out of the at-bat. The Lady Knights were still in an optimistic position to tie the game with a runner advancing to third despite the second out.
The Golden Tornadoes held firm to their one run lead and were able to get out of the inning on a pop-fly towards the outfield. West Bladen’s Marlene Crabtree started and finished the evening in the center-circle, with the visitors desperate to muster a response in the top of the seventh inning. Fairmont freshmen Jerrian Taylor led-off for the visitors to start their final at-bat of the evening and after fighting off a couple of pitches, she would eventually smack a high infield pop-up for the first out.
Crabtree got help from her defense for the Lady Knights next out as Fairmont’s Shonesty Hunt grounded into the fielder’s choice for the second out of the at-bat. The visitors were able to get a runner on-base thanks to the effort of senior infielder Kensly Newsberry in the batter’s box to place a runner on first. The Golden Tornadoes momentum lasted briefly as their half of the seventh would end with a fly out to left-field.
West Bladen junior Natalee Sykes led-off with a single that fell in shallow right-field near the foul line to place the tying run in position. Crabtree followed behind her by chopping an infield single that spilled into the outfield to give the Lady Knights an extra boost. Junior Brenna Hester took care of the rest and she slapped a 2-run double towards the left-field fence to secure the 9-8 victory in the seventh.
Fairmont junior Peyton Bullock was responsible for two RBI’s in their half of the second inning and sophomore Taylor Bullock had two RBI’s to her name in the top of the third inning. West Bladen finished the game scoring nine unanswered in the final three innings of Thursday’s game and they accumulated nine hits as a team. They swept the Golden Tornadoes home-and-away last week to propel themselves to third-place in the SAC 6 standings at 5-3 with two games remaining.
The Lady Knights will go on a brief hiatus during the break but they’ll return to action on Tuesday, April 29th against the Red Springs Red Devils at home. Red Springs suffered two straight losses to Midway in their last two conference games for a combined score of 35-0. The favorable results for Midway against Red Springs have them at 8-0 in SAC 6 action and they can lock up the conference title with wins over St. Pauls in the final week of the season. St. Pauls are second in the SAC 6 with a 6-2 record in conference action this season. Both Midway and St. Pauls are the top two scoring offenses in the SAC 6 this season with 299 runs between them.
The Golden Tornadoes occupy the fourth-place spot in the SAC 6 standings after dropping two games to West Bladen last week and they’ll return to conference action against Clinton on April 29th. Fairmont will also participate in the Robeson County Slugfest over the break as they take on Heide Trask for their next game.